Keep it small

Real communities are small. Intimate. Manageable. Not Facebook groups with 10,000 members—that's a crowd of strangers, not a community.

Small communities are actually easier to run. You don't need massive infrastructure. You can support what you build. People know each other. They show up as themselves, not as usernames in a sea of thousands.

Small is also easier to explain. If you need a manifesto to describe what your community is, it's too complicated. You should be able to say it in a sentence. That clarity matters—people join things they understand immediately.

The constraints help you focus. Don't try to offer everything. If you load your community with options, members end up sampling a bit of everything and getting nothing substantive. Pick one thing and do it well. Let members build from there. Their feedback and requests shape what comes next—they're adding to it, not you anticipating every need.

Small gives you room to experiment without massive risk. You can try something, see what works, adjust, or start over. You're not locked into supporting a massive infrastructure that requires constant maintenance.

The limitation is the strategy. Scope keeps you from overbuilding and under-delivering.